our stories: CANCER WARRIOR
Brenda Williams —
Cowgirl Up in the Battle Against Cancer
BY MISTY BROWNING
renda Williams is a tough cowgirl.
A cutting horse trainer for over 30
years, she moved back to Texas to get
more involved in the breeding aspect of
the horse industry. Williams worked on
a ranch and was rehabbing horses when
she was diagnosed with cancer.
“It was about a year when I was diag-
nosed with uterine cancer with a very
large mass in my uterus,” said Williams.
“I thought ok. Nothing big you know.
We will go and get it taken care of.”
That’s exactly what Williams did. She
went in and did a lot of radiation during
that summer. In August, she got hooked
up with Beverly Branch and Lyn Walsh,
or who are better known as the “Careity
girls” and Dr. DeEtte Vasques at the
Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders.
“Thank the good Lord,” she smiled
and said, ”I love that lady [Vasques]
and she’s a good ol’ girl as far as I’m
concerned. I just really like her. She did
some tests and we did some more scans
and stuff and she said Brenda, you have
Stage 3, and I think that I can probably
only keep you alive for a year. I said I’m
going to tell you, God and I have this
hooked. He’s in my corner and He’s
going to take care of it. So I said with his
guidance, we are going to get this taken
care of.”
It was that can-do attitude and God’s
guidance that has pushed her to tackle
her cancer head-on. Williams said at the
moment she was diagnosed with cancer,
she had a peace surround her she had
only heard about.
“People talked about having peace
in their life from God and being a
Christian, but I never felt more peaceful
in my whole life like I did right them. At
that moment, I knew God was there and
will take me through this.”
Williams went forward with radiation
and did some more chemo. In February,
she had surgery and a full hysterectomy
to take her uterus out. When doctors
looked at her uterus, her mass had
B
22
shrunk down to a microscopic piece and had been completely removed.
After she bounced back from that surgery, Dr. Vasques found a small
tumor in her vaginal sleeve. Now she is doing more chemo and looking
at more surgery.
Williams thanks Careity for everything that they have done to help her
during her journey. She doesn’t know what she would have done without
Beverly and Lyn. She knows in her heart that they were brought into her
life to help cure her of cancer. She said if it wasn’t for them, she doesn’t
know where she would be.
“I don’t think people know what this foundation does for people.
Not only do they put you to the right doctors, and the right place to get
all this taken care of, but the support system, the financial support in so
many ways that people out there have no idea what these ladies do. I
was unable to work. I’ve been physical all my life and the cancer made
that an impossibility for me to be as physical as I have always been.”
Careity’s biggest fundraiser is their celebrity cutting horse tournament.
They work hard with the NCHA and other organizations to raise money
to help people like Williams fight cancer and get back to their life.
Corporate sponsors like Jerry Durant donate their time and money to help
Careity give back as much as they do to the community. For Williams,
it’s all those unsung heroes that she thanks for helping her get back to
where she was before she was diagnosed with cancer.
“I thank my heavenly Father and Dr. V and all the people at the
Cancer Center here in Fort Worth and Weatherford and the Careity
Foundation. The whole conglomeration of wonderful people. Being the
person that I am with this whole organization, there is no doubt in my
mind that God is on my side and we will go forward and I will be back
riding real quick.”